


Something Else

by Miss_M



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Books, F/M, Ficlet, Force Bond (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 03:04:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13067772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_M/pseuds/Miss_M
Summary: “You know you could just stop.”





	Something Else

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing.

“You know you could just stop.”

Rey could see that he was in a chamber on a command carrier, all black panels and shiny chrome. The Force bond grew stronger every time, though Rey still couldn’t control it. It came and went, like a ship entering and exiting hyperspace.

Ben kept his back to her, hunched over what looked like a sacred book of some kind. Fortifying himself on scripture when his own convictions remained wobbly – Rey could feel the rough, snagging texture of his feelings and thoughts through the Force, like Jakku limestone crumbling under impact. Did the First Order go in for sacred texts? What little she could see of the volume from behind Ben’s broad back reminded her of the old Jedi volumes she had found in Master Luke’s keeping. 

“So could you,” Ben said. “ _You_ could stop.”

Rey smiled, just a little. “No. I really, really couldn’t.”

He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Neither could I.” 

“That’s only true if you make it so.” She let herself smile broadly – perhaps teasing him would work where sincerity did not quite succeed. “Why don’t you get in a shuttle and meet me somewhere neutral? We could talk it over.”

The look on his face was the closest to a smile she’d seen. It looked rusty with lack of use. “So your rebel scum friends can capture me and parade me in a show trial? I thought you were meant to be clever, or did Skywalker grow senile in his old age, choosing you as his successor?”

Rey’s smile dropped. “Don’t talk about him that way. You know better. And don’t call me rebel scum, either.”

Ben’s expression turned sulky and shuttered, and for a moment Rey could see the boy who had goaded Luke Skywalker into betraying them both. The star pupil, the bitterest disappointment, the gravest failure. She had seen enough of the dark side to know how easy it was to just… give in. Let go. Become the person you always feared you were, under all the masks and assumptions.

“Well, you _are_ a rebel,” Ben snapped. She could feel his temper swelling through the bond, like blood dripping in clear water.

Rey let her own temper flare. “I may be a rebel, but _you_ don’t get to call me scum.”

They glared at each other. Rey could almost believe they were in the same room, although she felt the cave floor under her boots, the chill subterranean air all around her, the blank expanse of the underground passage's grey stone wall behind her: nothing that would help Ben identify her location. 

The bond wavered under the dual onslaught of their anger, but Ben’s suddenly-soft tone helped her focus. “No,” he said. “You’re not scum. You’re… something else.”

Rey didn’t have to force her smile this time. She didn’t much like how his moments of decency touched her, but she didn’t fight the feeling. “What are you reading?”

He appeared startled, then relieved at the sudden change of topic. He half covered the open volume with his hand, but didn’t close it or put it away. “ _The Book of the First Order._ This is the original copy, hand-written by the first Supreme Leader himself.”

Rey valiantly did not roll her eyes. “Read me a bit of it?”

Ben’s expression warred between wariness and eagerness. “Why? It won’t help your reb… side to know what’s in it.”

Rey shrugged. “It’s just you and me here, and I’m curious. I’m trying to understand.”

Ben watched her. She waited out his silence. 

“I don’t believe you,” he said finally. 

_Oh by all the suns in the galaxy, have a little faith!_ Rey thought. She didn’t say that. Instead she sat down, cross-legged, on the cave floor and propped her chin on her hand. “Try me.”


End file.
